This is all very odd. By definition (or maybe what I believe to be its definition), the ESA is a European agency, so is this a new way to allow individual countries for advertisement?
Like rich men can now buy flights in space, countries which didn’t yet send someone in space can pay for one of their nationals to be in space representing them.
Maybe Europe (or the ESA) should develop something like Axiom, but I suspect it to be hard, but perhaps could drive some form of innovation)? Or perhaps they’re already trying and have not succeeded (it’s hard to have the same resources as SpaceX)
ESA is pursuing a commercial cargo program (with a commercial crew program likely to follow), but they are a decade or so behind the NASA/SpaceX/Axiom partnerships which currently exist in the US.
Ah, cool! I didn’t know that. Yes, unfortunately the EU is behind both in the tech and space sector: different countries, laws and regulations prevent the same type of agile environment that the US has. Still, it’s important that the EU keeps pushing its programs